Migrants detained for up to 5 years for ‘administrative convenience’

Newly released figures have sparked accusations that the Home Office is using detention as an ‘administrative convenience’ when processing migrants for deportation, according to yesterday’s report in the Independent.

The case for having a time limit on how long people can be held in immigration detention gains another boost following release of the data, obtained following a request under the Freedom of Information Act. (Barbed wire pic, from Flickr under creative comms licence, by Terry Freeman)

The figures reveal that, of the people detained without trial by the Home Office, 20 were effectively imprisoned for two years or more, and 90 for one year or more. One detainee has been detained for almost five years.